I'm delivering some copies of The Heir to a bookstore today. They have a sci-fi book club who are going to read it as one of their books. I'll be going to see them in January next year, after they've read it

Sarah - Sorry to hear about the car. That sucks. Yes, I'm hanging out for Allegiant next week too!

marielle - Songbird has put up a review on The Crown, and she seems to have enjoyed it. She's the first person that I know of to finish it. But she found four mistakes! I'll just have to hope that they're not obvious to everyone. I didn't see them.

Songbird - sooooo glad you liked it! Hopefully some other people will read it soon. Feel free to start a post on it at Goodreads anytime.

Look at that, 2 times here in two days... I'm getting better at this.... Nah, my boss is still away so it gives me a bit of time to do a post.

Nothing new to report here. I'm starting to get a little nervous for the kittens. Tomorrow is their big day at the vet. I'm sure it will all go okay, I'm just more worried about the fact that they aren't allowed to eat anything after 10pm tonight... It might cause for some issues...

Lynne, you mean spelling errors? You shouldn't worry too much about those. I'm reading a book right now and I found a spelling error in each chapter at the least. Spaces missing etc... Most people won't notice.

Susan, swimming lessons for A or B shouldn't take more than 6 months!!! With school swimming we used to go only in april, may and june and get the diplomas. 2,5 years is way too long... The convention is here in Rijswijk. It's just around the corner for me. I'm really looking forward to it. I'm just hoping the kittens are feeling well enough that I don't have to worry about them too much. That would ruin the weekend. But otherwise, I'm really excited about it...

Okay so an issues, they are having a trick or treat halloween thing for teh kids in my neighborhood. I really want to participate in it to show that we are willing to be a part of the new community. However I have no idea how to do it. I have to send an email if the kids are allowed to ring the bell, and yes I know how to buy candy but not sure about the decoration, etc.... any ideas?

These violent delights, have violent endings...Like fire and gunpowder, they consume what they kiss

What a day!! I woke up feeling a bit sick this morning, but decided to go ahead and go to work because I already get so few hours, I have to take advantage when I get some. So unless I'm feeling really awful, I need to go. So I got showered and ready, and 10 minutes before we left for school/work, MM came up to me and was running at me and making me catch him and he says "Mama, this time, don't let me go until I give you a kiss!" which is a game we play, and he normally is not affectionate, so I said ok. He runs, jumps on me and I grab him and he screams and me and I was like ??? and then I felt it...he peed on me. So I had to run to get myself and him changed before we left. I got to work, and there wasn't much to do, so I told my supervisor I wouldn't be upset at ALL if I had to go home early, so he let me go 2 hours early. Yay! Still not feeling great, but I have a meeting at school tonight for the Parent advisory board and I HAVE to go, because it's the first one of the year that we were supposed to have a month ago but there was no one to let us in, and we have to go over who is going to do what.

Lynne, I really don't think anyone else will see the mistakes. If I didn't have to read every word separately I wouldn't see them. I just have to read very thoroughly to understand what I am reading.So, can I post spoilers if I start a discussion at Goodreads?

Marielle, I wish I was there! I would have your house totally decked out! You can cut out a jackolantern from orange paper (or make a real one), you can make ghosts out of a white paper bag with a balled up newspaper under it...you can make a skull and crossbones from a plastic plate...google halloween crafts and you'll find TONS of stuff. Cotton balls pulled apart like like cobwebs....I once did a spider web on my door with string.I know...our pool here is known for taking a REALLY long time to get kids through. That's why we're switching. It's SOOOO expensive and we've told the kids they can't do any other activities until they get swimming done. But we didn't know it was going to take so long!

Crazy long day-four houses which translates (counting commuting between all 4), it's about 9 hours! I'm exhausted but there's another Seahawks game on tonight so Jason's Dad is over here, watching with us. He brought pizza though, which meant I didn't have to figure out dinner after such a long day so that's nice.

No other news on my car, though insurance did say it's officially totaled, but we were told we will likely get some money back after the loan is paid off, so we can probably get another one. I absolutely hate car shopping though.

Allegiant is out in just a few days, which I find so exciting. I plan to go right after work and buy it!

Lynne-yay about your seminars. Would you be teaching?

Marielle-I really thought it was minor, but when the airbag deployed, it broke the seat belt and those two things alone are $2,000. I only paid around $6K for the car, an incredible deal for what it was and with it needing a new hood, new bumper and both headlights needing to be completely rebuilt, it is cheaper to take the settlement and look for something hopefully sturdier.

Have fun at the Faire, sounds awesome Are you haggling with the designers or just shopping off the rack?

Song-thanks for the sympathy. I dearly hope life will settle down at some point, but that doesn't seem to be happening!

Feel better quick! When do the kids switch to the new pool? I think it's so important that kids know how to swim so they won't be so scared of water, like I am

MM is having a test lesson at the new pool tonight to see if they can merge him in. I'm kind of doubting it because the guy I talked to isn't the one who planned this lesson, and this lesson is with advanced swimmers, not beginners. I called and asked, and the guy who planned him for this lesson said he had understood from the guy I talked to that MM has had swimming lessons elsewhere. So I explained to him that, yes, he does, but he's been there for almost a year and hasn't progressed at ALL, he's still a beginner. We'll see, but I'm a bit anxious about it.Bug and MM are both being bullied at school. Bug is a really mellow kid. She doesn't stand up for herself at all, so she's an easy target. She's smiley and happy and likes to include everyone and these 3 girls are little elitist snobs who take over the playground equipment and won't let her play. Or they play a game and tell her she can't play and then tell everyone to run away from her, etc. So today I was picking them up and a mother came up and said she had seen this other girl the other day that shoved her away from the bars. (Bug likes to do flips on the bars) Bug had mentioned these 3 girls several times and at the beginning of the year, she had said she had made friends with them, but now she keeps saying they won't let her play, etc. So I asked her about it and she said she had THOUGHT they were friends, but lately they are mean to her so she's not friends with them anymore. And this mother happened to see the one girl shove Bug off the bar and Bug did NOTHING and didn't really react or stand up for herself either. So the mother scolded the girl and told her to be nice and play together, etc. So I told Bug's teacher now, and they will talk to her about it and find out what's happening, who is involved in it, and hopefully get it resolved. There's also an older girl she keeps talking about that tells her she's ugly and stupid, etc. Then MM keeps coming home saying this boy pushed him down, or that he was kicking his girlfriend (MM had a "girlfriend" in the other class) or that he was saying rude things about him. I also talked to his teacher about that and she said she's heard that name from quite a few kids that he's a bully. But that's a tough one because his mom is the chairman of the parent advisory board with me, so I have to be kind of careful there. And because I know that MM tends to misinterpret actions...if someone accidentally bumps him, he thinks the kid pushed him, I don't know what to think. So I don't want to accuse this kid of being a bully if it's just that he's rough and MM got knocked down on accident, though it doesn't sound like it, because he also said the kid was running after him and his girlfriend kicking and hitting them. And since the teacher said we aren't the first to mention him, I think it's more likely that the kid is just a brat. But at least HE'S already being watched. But I was talking to some other moms and they said the teachers don't watch at recess at all. They sit on a bench and drink their coffee and chat, so they don't see anything that goes on. Hopefully that will change soon! But we now have a week of vacation!! Yay!

Lynne, that is fantastic about the school!! What kind of seminars would you be doing? Is it a high school?I started a few discussions at Goodreads. I saw that someone rated it 5 stars and then put in their review that it sounded good and they couldn't wait to read it. Is that someone you know? What is it with people rating/reviewing when they haven't read it? I mean, at least this one is a GOOD rating, so that's nice, but it sort of undermines the system if people aren't basing their ratings on their actual feelings having read it!

Sarah, wow...4 houses!! My mom used to do 2 a day. One in the morning, one in the afternoon...4 sounds insane!!!So was this accident your fault or will there be someone else's insurance that pays for the damages? It must be so sad to be going through this AGAIN. You haven't had this car long, have you?The new pool depends on tonight. Bug is done, so we don't need to switch her. But MM has a test lesson tonight where they will see what he can do right now, what his level is and in which group they can place him. If he's not far enough to place him in an existing group, there's a 3-5 month waiting period. So it could be anywhere from next week to 5 months from now. But at this point, if they can't place him, I still want to sign him up and we'll wait the 3-5 months because he's been in swimming lessons for 10.5 months and has made ZERO progress other than learning to float. As Marielle said, it SHOULDN'T take that long. He should already be ready for at least the A diploma. But then it took Bug more than 2 years to get A, and even SHE didn't take THIS long to get through a single practice level. She didn't take longer than a few months at any level and he's been at this level since 3 weeks after he started. He had 3 weeks of the pool where they get used to the water, where they learn to float and he was the first kid to move to the actual practice level one. But he's been there ever since and there have been several times that they have moved kids up since then and he just hasn't made it to the next level. He's not getting any better, so they can't move him on. I don't want to spend ANOTHER year at this level before we do something different and he's getting frustrated because he sees all the other kids getting to go on and he is still in the same group. It's not fair to him. But he told me today that he thinks the "frog legs" are hard. (that's how they describe the stroke...you make frog legs, then make them round and then straighten them) If this pool doesn't move faster, I'm going to contact the physical therapist and have his motor skills looked at again. They tested his fine motor skills last year, and he was behind but not enough to warrant therapy. But this seems more like the gross motor skills, which they didn't test. So we may have to do that.

it's Saturday and I am determined to buy myself a new phone. My phone is as old as the hills. I don't know if I want a smart phone (in my mind phones should be used for calls and texting, not for taking photos, checking emails and surfing the web) but I don't know if I'll be able to find anything else. I hope so. I really need a new one but I don't want to spend a fortune.

Sarah - I guess I will be teaching in a way, hopefully the things about writing that they haven't already learned in school. When I got to meet this guy I'm talking to in a couple of weeks, I'm going to try and find out what they've already learned so I'm not covering old ground ... unless they've been taught the wrong thing, which is entirely possible. I hope you find the right car quickly.

Songbird - I'm sorry to hear about the bullying. That can be tricky to deal with. I'm dreading the day I encounter it will Little Man. I will probably blow my gasket when it happens, as I was bullied in school and I'll be damned if I let anyone do it to my son! In the school I'll be talking mainly about the techniques for writing a novel (or writing generally) and what publishers are looking for. No, I don't know the person who gave that five star review. It really bugs me when they do that. Why review a book you haven't even read?